Lagos will stand still from June 16 to 19 when it celebrates Benson Idonije at 80 around the theme, ‘The Benjay Phenomenon’.
The four-day line-up of events, the Benson Idonije @ 50 Committee stated, will take place at the Muson Centre, O’jez Restaurant and Freedom Park, all in Lagos, and capture the essence of the Idonije decades of contributing to broadcasting and music promotion.
Born in 1936 in Otuo, Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State, where he also started primary school, Idonije studied Communications Engineering at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, after his Cambridge School Certificate at Holy Trinity Grammar School, Sabongida Ora.
He joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (later Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN) in 1957 as Engineering Assistant, but moved to mainstream broadcasting in 1960 when, among other roles, he became a producer and presenter of such famous programmes as ‘The Big Beat ‘and ‘Stereo Jazz Club’, eventually participating in setting up and pioneering Radio Nigeria 2 (now Metro FM) in 1977.
The highpoint of his career in broadcasting was his transfer to FRCN Training School where, for eight years, he became principal lecturer and chief training officer, Programme Production from 1984 to 1992 when he retired.
After retirement, Benjay, as he is fondly called, contributed critiques, opinions and commentaries to many major arts-related journals in Nigeria and abroad. In 1996, he was formally invited by The Guardian (Nigeria) to write for the newspaper; and he maintained three columns every week – Evergreen (Wednesdays), Sound and Screen (Fridays) and All That Jazz (Sundays).
He is perhaps the only columnist in any Nigerian newspaper with such frequency and resourcefulness. The well-researched columns are individually widely acclaimed, attracting feedback – mostly commendations – from all over the world. The hundreds of articles have been collated into volumes for publication.
A 2012 recipient of the ‘Life Time Award for Journalism Excellence’ from the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Benjay is also a Fellow of Adam Fiberesima School of Music and Conservatory, University of Port Harcourt.